Just got back from another night of watching improv. This has been another 4-day improv binger. I attended the free workshop on Thursday night for the sake of my friend Kristin, who I convinced to go. Ramiro (from Sprint) was also supposed to go, but he cancelled last minute. There was also another girl, who showed up because of one of my posts on Facebook. The workshop was taught by Dave Johnson, who is an amazing teacher (and person). I really must take a class taught by him sometime.
On Friday, I volunteered to work the camera again. This is definitely the best of all the volunteer gigs, because you get to watch the show and not really do much. Although, I still do a lot, because I use the time to work on my camera zooms and pans to accurately reflect the emotions on stage. I do what I can with the small, point-and-shoot video camera they have. I’d love to use my pro HD camera sometime.
Saturday night, I went to WIT as an audience member. I paid full-price for the tickets (although, this weekend’s shows weren’t sold out, so maybe I’ll take my chances on getting student-discount tickets next time). I wanted to check out some of the troupes I’d never seen, like JINX and onesixtyone. Both were good. The cast for onesixtyone were like all-stars. During the FIST tournament portion, I thought both of the teams performing were excellent and had the arduous task of picking one to cheer for. I went with Grandma Molly’s Way Back Machine, because Molly handed out candy to myself and others seated in the front row as the team made their entrance. Afterwards, Jackie also performed well – though I kept thinking of the old version of Jackie that I had seen during my first visits to WIT back in 2005. With the exception of one or two players, the troupe is now totally different.
Tomorrow will be the first day of my second class at WIT (the 1B class taught by Annie). I don’t know what to expect, since I won’t know any of the other students. But unlike the Foundations class I recently finished, there won’t be any introductory learning in this class. We’ll just be jumping into scenes – with total strangers. Seems challenging, but I like that. Switching to a Sunday class makes things much easier (and cheaper) for me. I like the early 6PM start time and the fact that I have the option to drive or take the subway (without paying for parking). And depending on the class, I have a feeling my new classmates won’t be as unified as my previous class. Meaning we probably won’t be going out for drinks after every class. But who knows?
As I was watching the performances this weekend, I really felt unsatisfied as an audience member. I was itching to jump into the scenes myself on stage. In the span of two months, I went from being a WIT fan to a WIT student to a WIT volunteer to a WIT FIST performer. And while I’m still a student and volunteer, I’m starting to crave the performance aspect of WIT the most. My goal for being involved with improv has changed from just meeting other improv actors (to be in my podcasts, etc.) to actually wanting to get through all the classes and audition for one of the troupes.
Being the nerd that I am, I’ll have to update my 2008 goals next week, when Q2 begins. Instead of “getting involved with WIT,” I’ll want to “audition for a WIT troupe.”
